Measures being discussed include a further expansion of the the European Financial Stability Mechanism designed to increase funds available to countries and banks which run into trouble.
Under the terms of the deal, this supervisory body will oversee the eurozone's banks and use the single currency area's rescue funds, the European Financial Stability Facility or European Stability Mechanism, to aid banks directly without adding to governments' debt.
CNN: Eurozone ministers agree bailout for ailing Spanish banks
First, countries seeking help should make a formal request to the temporary European Financial Stability Facility or the (planned) permanent European Stability Mechanism.
One thing not to count on is the existing European Financial Stability Facility, and coming European Stability Mechanism and International Monetary Fund aid to be sufficient to rescue Spain and still have enough firepower to deal with Italy if needed.
If they have a choice, European officials would delay any bailout until the permanent European Stability Mechanism replaces the current temporary fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, later this year.
The funds committed to Spain will be channeled through the eurozone's permanent and temporary bailout funds, the European Stability Mechanism and European Financial Stability Facility respectively.
Optimists will point out that 500bn euros of bailout money should be available for use reasonably quickly to prop up the likes of Italy and Spain, as a result of the leaders' decisions to expedite expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility and bring forward the launch date of the European Stability Mechanism.
One approach, mooted in Mexico, would be for the zone's bail-out funds either the permanent European rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) due to start in July, or the temporary European Financial Stability Facility to purchase the bonds of struggling countries like Spain and Italy, driving down their yields.
The temporary rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), would be allowed to overlap with the permanent new European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which is to be activated this summer.
The European Stability Mechanism and its forerunner, the European Financial Stability Facility, can exploit a special contingency to spend hundreds of billions of euros trying to put a ceiling on borrowing costs.
An important issue point is whether the rescue funds will come from the European Financial Stability Facility, the temporary bailout fund that is being wound down, or its permanent replacement, the European Stability Mechanism.
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